Monday, June 14, 2010

Dan Parks kicked Scotland to a great win over Argentina in Tucuman on the weekend as they won came away with the 24-16 away victory, Argentina’s first ever loss at that famous venue.

Argentina had the better of the starts as they scored two tries through Gonzalo Tiesi and Juan-Manual Leguizamon. Scotland and Parks weren’t too concerned though and the flyhalf kicked six penalties and landed two drop goals.

Coach Andy Robinson commended his side for the way in which they stuck in there.

"I can't praise them highly enough. This is one of the most hostile places to play in the world and they did a great job. Not only did Dan Parks find the target when it mattered, he produced an excellent performance," he said.

Parks himself was pleased with the result, and happy to have earned the respect of the locals.

"We had been told about the supporters here and how it was one of the toughest places to play. But near the end they were applauding and cheering us. That is a measure of how well we played after a shaky start.

"It was particularly satisfying to earn the appreciation of fans like them. They know their rugby! I just happened to pick up some points but it was a superb all-round team effort,” Parks said.

Scottish legend Jim Telfer has tipped his team to win the next match when the two sides meet again on Saturday, but is concerned about their lack of tries.

"It's worrying, because they had plenty of the ball, they tried to move it wide - sometimes that's fairly predictable," said Telfer.

I suggest a few people (Twats such as chris boy for example) on these forums watch the highlights of the game again, or brush up on their rugby knowledge. That was one of the most complete performances from a Scotland team, playing positive rugby. The high penalty count was from Argentina infringing at the break down, allowing defence to be reshuffled, hence the lack of trys.

As stated by Johnnie Beattie in his blog, Andy Robinson is light years ahead of the NH game, and bearing in mind Scotland are still minus several key players, expect good things from this side.

Most boring team in rugby? Scoring through penalty tries is hardly edge of seat stuff either....

Good to see Scotland finally throwing the ball about a bit more, even though we were dangerously close to a few interceptions at times! Better rugby that's for sure. Fact is we put up a better performance than the other home nations did and it leads me to have hope that Scotland can succeed.

Boring to watch? Last time I checked this was a profesional game. The players are out there to win matches not to entertain us, I know I dont play to entertain spectators. End of the day a win is a win. It would be nice to see Scotland scoring more tries, I agree but its coming, as BugBucks said "Aussie, Irish and now an Argie scalp" and dont forget the only team they really deserved to lose to in the 6 nations was France. Great win for Scotland, we have something to look forward to in the rugby world now. well done guys doing us proud

I bet you didn't even watch the game, Anonymous. You sound like a buffoon. Glad I'm not on your team, because I'd be happy if our kicker scored us 24 points and led us to a victory, especially after fighting up the field to win those penalties.

NZ seal, i considered comparing scotland's level of boring to england's anyway. You can make excuses for why tries weren't scored in this particular game, but i watch pretty much every game they play and tries are few and far between so maybe YOU should brush up on YOUR rugby knowledge.

Anonymous said...The players are out there to win matches not to entertain us.

It is possible to do both at the same time as the expansive entertaining rugby played by the winners in at least three other tests this weekend shows. But I didn't see this match in full so I'm only commenting on your statement which seems to have low expectations of what rugby can be.

Sorry, but it is boring rugby.And it won't work against the top teams with an regularity.The irony is that boring rugby is also, historically, not a succesful type of rugby.If you can't score tries you will never be a great or particularly succesful side.It's all well and good to have a good defence and great kicking game, but it means nothing if you also can't run the ball.

if scoring all your points just by kicking and not scoring any trys is "going forward" rugby than why dont we all just start kicking the ball, make it round, act up the tiniest scratch as if it were an amputated arm and prance about caring more about our looks than the actual game we're playing? argentine rugby is not "going backwards", the problem is that they dont have the same resources as the teams they face. thank god they're finally being taken a bit serious by being allowed into the tri-nations from 2012 onward. terrible comment by a "scottish legend"

my favorite moment in this game is the way the keep the ball, great stuff, hang on it with all their force, force it, copy it, win or lose all your force at my age, you'll be proud to win if you can lose that..and stop watching, declare yourself, RD!!!

Don't want us to keep kicking penalties? That's fine by us - just stop giving them away.

In the Evans and Lamont brothers, Scotland have four great finishers and know how to score tries, but hey, it doesn't always happen. Whilst we're at it, the killer Bs back row is one of the best units in world rugby right now - Scotland are looking pretty rosy.

Chris boy - Did you watch the highlights as suggested? Lack of tries doesn't always mean boring, as that game proved.

Scotland lacked that killer blow, and I assure you that will come. And in terms of them not scoring tries...i seem to recall the wales game this 6n, with 2 fantastics scores, and Johnnie Beatties against Ireland, which for me was one of the best individual tries of the 6N

It was a great performance of Parks. But Scotland plays sooooo boring! They do not seem able to score a try to any opponent team.They play always the same, neat "forwards rugby", and rely on Parks or Patterson to score points. It is really boring and a pity not to see great players like the Lamont brothers more in action.On the other side, Pumas cannot make so many penalties in this level... especially leguizamon, great player but too undisciplined.